The mother of a young Uyghur man believed to have been forcibly taken away after 2009 riots in Urumqi will go to court next month to face charges of leaking China state secrets for discussing her son’s disappearance in an interview with Radio Free Asia, a source close to the family said.

Widow Patigul Ghulam has been one of the most vocal Uyghurs who have been pressing authorities on the whereabouts of family members missing during the violence in Urumqi on July 5, 2009 between minority Muslim Uyghurs and Han Chinese that left 200 people dead.

Her son, Imammemet Eli, who would now be 32, was taken by police on July 14, 2009 and she last heard about him nine months later, when fellow inmates said he was found severely tortured and taken to a hospital.

Patigul Ghulam has been pressing local police in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, for information on her son ever since, but has not received any satisfactory answers.

The son is among several thousand people, according to Uyghur exile groups, who were forcibly disappeared in the aftermath of the violence, the most deadly episode of ethnic unrest in China’s recent history.

Closed trial on April 7

Patigul Ghulam, who had been under house arrest and under heavy surveillance since September 2012, was detained in May 2014, a month after she gave an interview to RFA’s Uyghur Service. At the time, she said that she met with Wang Mengshen, the Urumqi city police chief, and said that Wang told her the police were still looking for her son.

Patigul Ghulam now faces a closed court session on April 7, a person close to her family told RFA. The source requested that her identity not be revealed for fear of retaliation from the government.

“The court convenes on the 7th of April. None of her kids were given permission to attend. Right now they are waiting for the government’s reply to their request to attend to the court session,” the source told RFA.

After their mother was detained, her other three children were put under surveillance and faced interrogation. They recently were granted the right to visit their mother once a month, on the precondition that they not speak to any foreign media, the source added.

“Only one of them is working, in an invitation card publication shop. Their economic situation is not that good, either,” said the source.

A police officer at the Bahuliang police station in the Thenritagh (in Chinese, Tianshan) district of Urumqi declined to comment on the case when contacted by RFA.

“I do not have permission to speak on this case,” he said.

A neighborhood committee worker in Bahuliang, location of the family home, also declined comment.

“I do not know anything about her situation. There is special personal that is in charge of her case. You should ask him,” she said.

Reported by Gulchehra Hoja for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by Mamatjan Juma. Written in English by Paul Eckert.

The following is the translation of a Chinese language blog published by the Uyghur Human Rights Project on February 16, 2016. According to Radio Free Asia, Patigul Ghulam faces trial in April, 2016.

Patigul Ghulam is a mother unwavering in her commitment to find her missing son who disappeared after the “July 5 incident.” It is well known that hundreds died and thousands were injured in the “July 5 incident,” which brought untold suffering to the Uyghur people. In addition to the hundreds who died and thousands injured, during and after July 5, 2009 many Uyghurs were arrested and disappeared and have not been heard from since.

On July 5, 2009, Uyghurs peacefully gathered in Urumchi’s People’s Square to protest the government’s inaction in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province, after a deadly attack on Uyghur workers there. Details of that day and the following months are still unclear today. What is clear is that the events in Urumchi caused an untold number of casualties and unprecedented unrest. Eyewitness accounts of the July 5 events in Urumchi documented in a report by the Uyghur Human Rights Project as well as human rights groups includingAmnesty International confirm instances in which Chinese riot police shot and killed peaceful Uyghur protestors.

At that time, brave Uyghur mother Patigul Ghulam’s son Ali was 25 years old, and seven days after the major unrest of July 5 (around July 12), police took him away. Ever since her son was taken, she has appealed to authorities, and searched everywhere for her son, to no avail. Throughout her search process, Patigul has suffered countless insults and unreasonable treatment by the local authorities.

According to Radio Free Asia, on May 27, 2014 the Urumchi Public Security Bureau detained Patigul on the grounds that she “aided hostile forces to publicly vilify the government.” An anonymous neighbor of Patigul who is familiar with the situation gave an account to Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur Service, citing Patigul’s daughter. The neighbor said that after a bombing incident at an Urumchi fruit market on the morning of May 22, 2014, the Urumchi police detained Patigul on May 27 on charges of “aiding hostile forces to publicly vilify the government,” though the police never explained what her illegal behavior actually was. Patigul’s daughter protested the police conduct, but she was threatened that if she continued to attract public attention and cause trouble, she would be found guilty of the same crime as her mother.

Because of her son’s disappearance after his arrest by police, Patigul has spent years protesting to the local authorities, demanding an explanation, and actively appealing to overseas media. Based on reports, nine months after her son’s arrest, she heard directly from another prisoner that Ali had been tortured and was hospitalized. Thereafter she did not receive any further information about her son.

According to investigations by Uighurbiz and other independent websites, after the “July 5 incident” the Chinese authorities arrested 1,800 Uighurs – some were sentenced to death; some were sentenced to life imprisonment; some were released; and many went missing, and their whereabouts remain a mystery today. Based on the understanding of overseas Uyghur groups, seven years later the family members of those who disappeared have been subject to long-term pressure and monitoring.

As one among hundreds of mothers who lost their sons and daughters, Patigul’s experience showcases the inhumane treatment that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) adopts towards Uyghurs like her. It is suffering enough to lose close relatives and sons or daughters, and to “add fuel to the fire” by further abusing a woman with nowhere to turn is simply inhumane. Nevertheless, as Patigul has said, “I don’t have a gun, I have only my mouth and my tears, and you cannot control them.” No matter how the CCP tramples the freedom and rights of the Uyghurs, the CCP government is powerless to cover up the “mouths” of the Uyghur people even after its long-term forceful oppression, their “tears” cried for freedom, or their perseverance in the struggle for their future.